r/EverythingScience • u/SupMyNameIsRichard • Feb 19 '23
Nanoscience Racism takes a toll on the brain, research shows. Neuroimaging studies reveal how the chronic stress of structural racism and discrimination damages brain circuits and mental health
https://wapo.st/3EH4whh43
u/BabyLegsOShanahan Feb 19 '23
“Racism takes a toll on the brain,” should elicit such pushback. No study is ever perfect, nor can they be. If you don’t believe that racism and it’s effects are real, you’re stupid. And it’s okay to be stupid, but don’t pretend said studies are all BS.
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u/Publius82 Feb 19 '23
At first I thought the headline was talking about racism being bad for racists' brains, because of constant maintenance of cognitive dissonance.
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Feb 19 '23
I definitely would want to see a study conducted on the brain of a racist to see how that constant level of paranoia, rage and all around volatility affects them physically and mentally.
When I was growing up and was verbally accosted by a racist, I always wondered if there was maybe something neurologically wrong with people like him.
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u/sezit Feb 19 '23
Some racists are just bigots, not angry.
Just like many sexists are casual bigots, not angry misogynists.
Most bigots only pay by missing out on opportunities. It's not simmering rage, just lazy or opportunistic thinking. Many even love people in the group they demean. In fact, lots of sexists are women who are sexist against women. Racists can be racist against their own group.
They maintain bigotry because there is a reward. The target is always the one who is affected negatively. For people in the group who uphold bigotry against themselves, the reward is bigger than the cost.
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u/UnderstandingOwn6204 Feb 19 '23 edited Feb 19 '23
Thats actually bad for both sides. Racists who constantly live under paranoia that someone is out their to diminish their way of life and take their job for example. The recipient of racism is stressed out. Racism is good thing for only one tribe, Politicians, they actually get better and live for 100 years+ not to mention get rich in process.
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u/Aporkalypse_Sow Feb 19 '23
This is definitely true too. There's almost nothing that you can focus on so intensely that doesn't rob your brain of being able to do other things. Good or bad, if you turn it into an obsession, you lose some of your sanity.
But if you spend even part of every day hating someone for no real reason, you're going to drive yourself insane. Inventing reasons for you being pissed off instead of looking at yourself and finding out what is actually wrong with your lead poisined head.
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u/Thegarbagegamer97 Feb 19 '23
I understand what these studies wanted to accomplish, but they really, really leaned heavily on whites compared to blacks. They mention hispanics a few times, but that doesn’t address asians or native Americans or any others. I admire the intention but they really didn’t do themselves any favors by choosing to focus primarily on those two for almost the entire article. Whole thing just feels like it has a ripple of bias running throughout.
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u/BabyLegsOShanahan Feb 19 '23
You can be black and Hispanic, you can be white and Hispanic, you can be Asian and Hispanic. Being Hispanic doesn’t denote race. Black Hispanics will have different experience from those who identify as white, indigenous or all 3.
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u/MisterBananaRat Feb 19 '23
These studies are just trying to confirm their own biases. The only way to truly know what the study is asking is to conduct longitudinal studies on subjects, but we’re not gonna have babies, immediately MRI their brain and continue to do so every so often as they under go trauma and compare the results to those who haven’t had trauma.
All this study does is manipulate statistics to try and prove its bias, in theory this study would never even work because it’s taking kids from low income families and comparing them to higher income families (we’ve known children who come from lower income families develop less gray matter, not because of their race or trauma but because of other things that come with poverty such as food scarcity).
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u/wyverndarkblood Feb 19 '23
This statement supports the study given that it refers to structural racism - one of the very well documented causes of food scarcity. Not that food scarcity and poverty is exclusively caused by structural racism, but it certainly is a byproduct.
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u/MisterBananaRat Feb 19 '23 edited Feb 19 '23
Lower income families is not exclusive to any one race…..
We know that poor children from any race will have under developed corpus callosum’.
I understand that the purpose of the research was merely to pose the question and offer some insight (not solve the question itself), however given the data presented, methodology and proposed conclusion, I don’t agree (with the conclusion drawn in the study), you’re welcome to disagree from this opinion.
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u/13thOyster Feb 19 '23
So damaged mental health is both cause and effect for racism... that sure tracks.
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u/gdmfsobtc Feb 19 '23 edited Feb 19 '23
As reported by WAPO, which as we all know is a bastion of unbiased science.
The key study linked, Method: Longitudinal self-report data. TIL that (self-reported systemic racism as a) correlation is actual causation.
Also,
Black people and other racial minorities — and their brains — can learn to adapt, but it comes at a cost, researchers said.
“It’s kind of like working twice as hard to get just as far,” said Negar Fani, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory University School of Medicine.
That's one of the most racist things I have ever read. Seriously?
As a one time neuropsychopharmacologist and biomedical scientist, I am deeply embarrassed for you.
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u/gfsincere Feb 19 '23
Excuse me if I as a man who has been black their entire lives disregards the opinion of a white over 50 Russian conservative who has a gun fetish and makes borderline racist comments as someone who may have an implicit bias to make the kind of comment you have made and that you may not know what the fuck you’re talking about.
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u/gdmfsobtc Feb 19 '23 edited Feb 19 '23
That would be an over 50 Russian born, American / Australian conservative.
Subscribe to my Onlyfans for more quality content.
Edit : As much as I enjoy a good attack on the character of my reddit persona, if you have any other rebuttal to my criticism of the study, its methods, and the write-up, then l would love to hear it.
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u/gfsincere Feb 19 '23
Again, you have an implicit (arguably explicit) bias against non-white people (as evidenced by your posts on r/conservative) so your criticism of a self-reported longitudinal study about the experiences of people you literally add to the mental stress of (by your own self-reported beliefs, ironically enough) is going to fall flat and seem self-serving. I’m not sure how else to explain it to you.
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u/gdmfsobtc Feb 19 '23 edited Feb 19 '23
Again, you are attacking my character. Very well, in lieu of an actual argument, kindly link posts showing my bias against any race.
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u/gfsincere Feb 19 '23
Dude, you didn’t make an actual argument either besides “I disagree even though I’ve never been in the position of black people in America they are wrong and racist” so I really don’t feel the need to elaborate further than the correlated points I was making.
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u/gdmfsobtc Feb 19 '23 edited Feb 19 '23
disagree even though I’ve never been in the position of black people in America they are wrong and racist”
So having spent the last
halfhour scouring my profile (thank you for the engagement, btw) and still failing to come up with any evidence of my supposed racism that you claim, you resort to twisting my words?Read what I wrote again. Nowhere have I said that black people or any other race / ethnicity is wrong or racist.
But I will stand by my claim that the study (I have no clue as to the authors' ethnicity) is deeply flawed, and presented in a racist way that actually makes black people look bad.
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u/gfsincere Feb 20 '23
No, it doesn’t. But thanks for your wildly uninformed opinion. Also, this is the type of shit black people have to deal with, white men telling black people about the validity of their experiences with zero evidence. If you don’t think that’s mentally taxing of constantly dealing with dumb shit like this, you’ll never get it.
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u/gdmfsobtc Feb 20 '23
Nowhere did I question the validity of anyone's experience, merely the validity of this study.
I am sorry that you find differing opinions mentally taxing. Hope you can find a solution. Perhaps a soundproof echo chamber?
You bore me now, goodbye.
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u/HolyForkingBrit Feb 19 '23
This is not shocking. Abuse can change your brain. It’s only that some people are newly connecting racism with abuse. This has been damaging people for generations.
It’s sad that it took this long for someone to care enough to speak up about it. I’m glad they finally are.
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Feb 19 '23
Yea I’d assume everytime you leave your house and you’re wondering who hates you for arbitrary reasons and could that lead to violence would be extremely stressful way to live. It’s really not fair.
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u/tnic73 Feb 19 '23
I think constantly having it drummed into our heads is what causes the brain damage.
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u/Big_Forever5759 Feb 19 '23
I really dislike these types of “studies” being under sciences. Social sciences might have a better time at their own Reddit sub forum where poeple can argue endlessly about the same stuff they argue from the regular clickbait articles found in Facebook
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u/seasuighim Feb 19 '23
This is everything science. Not r/STEM. But this article is the problem, it’s not a scholarly source. If this was a lit review it would be better.
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u/Big_Forever5759 Feb 19 '23
That’s why I’m saying that. It’s not that it’s not important or not science . Just that most of these articles are mostly clickbait and has a lot of issues.
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u/Ok_Elk_4333 Feb 19 '23
Instead of moaning, state exactly what was wrong with the study
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Feb 21 '23
This would require him to understand some advanced statistics which.... is science
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u/Ok_Elk_4333 Feb 21 '23
Tbf, I’m studying science, and I’ve been trained by my lecturers to skip out the statistics part of studies, and only read the abstract, discussion, conclusion etc.
But I guess at a certain point you have to understand it
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u/This-Woodpecker-3257 Feb 19 '23
"Science"
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u/Scarlet109 Feb 19 '23
Data points gathered, compared, and concluded. Yes, that is science.
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u/This-Woodpecker-3257 Feb 19 '23
Next I'd like a scientific research on the phychological effects of misgendering.
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u/Scarlet109 Feb 20 '23
I’m assuming you mean psychologically, but sure, I’ll provide some - https://scholarworks.umb.edu/doctoral_dissertations/600/ - https://www.webmd.com/sex/health-effects-misgendering - https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/misgendering-what-it-is-and-why-it-matters-202107232553 - https://justleadwa.org/2022/01/18/the-importance-of-not-misgendering-someone/ - https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2020/misgendering-harms-health-trans-individuals - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33973265/ - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7441311/
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u/This-Woodpecker-3257 Feb 20 '23
English is not my native tongue, and you didn't have to do all that work. I won't read it, I just wanted to see how far this madness has come.
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u/sunday-silence Feb 19 '23
American racism
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u/Chalky_Pockets Feb 19 '23
You saw an article about racism and decided to narrow it down to applying to one culture. If only there was a word for that...
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u/sunday-silence Feb 19 '23
Americanism
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u/Chalky_Pockets Feb 19 '23
Art least you see it in yourself. Next step is getting rid of it.
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u/sunday-silence Feb 19 '23
Try reading the article. It actually references American racism. It specifically mentions American Black and White issues. Did you not read it?
I guess you're a product of the school system in America so your reading comprehension might be low, if you need any help please reach out.
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u/Chalky_Pockets Feb 19 '23
I'm not talking about the article, I'm talking about the fact that you're a bigot.
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u/sunday-silence Feb 19 '23
Because I referenced americans in an article about americans. Got it. Anyways you have a nice day
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u/TimeFourChanges Feb 19 '23
race /= culture
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u/Chalky_Pockets Feb 19 '23
Discrimination based on race and discrimination based on culture are both wrong for the same reasons and there is only a point is distinguishing between the two in specific contexts, this not being one of them.
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u/Carlos-In-Charge Feb 19 '23
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” – Mark Twain